The Wisdom Walk

“Walk in wisdom toward outsiders, making the most of the time. Your speech should be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you should answer each person.” (Colossians 4:5-6 CSB)

Perhaps a paraphrasing of these two verses would be helping in understanding them: “Live your life in ways that demonstrate sound and right thinking, particularly with regard to those who are not yet believers, so that you may have an opportunity to be a positive influence toward them. Anytime you speak, you should strive to speak in ways that influence others positively toward Christ, and, especially when they ask questions, follow this same principle rather than trying to argue with them or putting them down.”

Essentially, Paul says two things here. First, we need to walk the talk. We need to live our faith. There is little use in trying to share the truth of the gospel if we are not first living it ourselves, or at least making the effort to do so. A changed life must first be evidenced. Otherwise, our words are irrelevant.

Second, Paul says we need to talk the walk. For believers, just living the Christian life is not enough. To make the picture complete, we also need to speak the truth. We need to verbally communicate the story of Jesus and our personal testimony about how we have ourselves experienced Him, so that they, too, may come to know Jesus.

So, the admonition is simple: live it, speak it.

Lord, Today, may we do just that. Amen.